Last update - 00:00 01/02/2007
Soul in a Bowl / Grilled pineapple and strawberry skewers
By Doram Gaunt
Tasty and fresh pineapples and strawberries can be eaten as they are. Adding a few more ingredients transforms them into an either hot or cold, but elegant dessert. A word of caution: The fresh, and expensive, pineapple sold here is not necessarily always good. Often it looks nice from the outside but the inside is rotten, so make sure to buy it only from a reliable grocer.
Ingredients (for four portions)
1 fresh pineapple
24 strawberries
40 grams butter, melted
1 tsp. balsamic vinegar
3 tbs. sugar
500 ml (2 containers) sour cream, 15% fat
4 tsp. real maple syrup
Preparation
Peel the pineapple and cut the flesh surrounding its hard core into 36 cubes. Stick the fruit on 12 wooden skewers, placing three pineapple cubes together with two strawberries on each skewer.
In a bowl, mix the melted butter and the balsamic vinegar. Then brush the mixture onto the fruit. Immediately sprinkle the skewers with (or roll them in) the sugar.
Preheat the oven grill until it is hot, then place the fruit skewers inside, making sure they are very close to the heat source. Grill only until the sugar melts and starts to bubble (approximately one minute), then turn over and grill the other side. In the meantime mix the sour cream and the maple syrup in a bowl until it assumes an even texture.
Place a quarter of the sour cream and maple syrup mixture on each plate and add three fruit skewers on top of each serving. Eat immediately.